What did you see tonight?

[F15Rules]

Having been "promised" a few hours of clearness by the Met Office app, it looked early on as though the clouds (both high up thin cloud and lower fast moving ones) were going to scupper any chance of a session..

..but I looked out again at c 8.40pm, and there was the Moon very high up and bright, so I got out my Vixen SD115S and did a quick polar alignment of the EM2s equatorial so I could track the objects I planned to observe: M42 of course, the Moon,  Rigel, and Sirius.

I was pleased to note that although transparency wasn't great, and of course the very bright waxing Moon was drowning out many fainter stars, the seeing looked pretty good.

I started on M42 with MBII binoviewers and a pair of Vixen 30mm NPLs..I can't get native magnifications with the 115s as yet (I need to look into this, to see if I can find a truly "ultrashort" adapter).

So, I tried 3 different barlows, at 1.6x, 2x and 2.25x. M42 was first, and was a little disappointing compared to my first view 10 days ago (better transparency and no bright moon then).

I moved straight to the Moon, and was rewarded with some lovely views, most notably of Plato..I managed a shot of it with my handheld mobile phone (I must get a proper holder!) through the right hand eyepiece of my binoviewer ..

Below, for comparison, is a screenshot image taken from the Sky at Night website with credit to the original photographer who used a 9.25" Celestron SCT..

The session turned out to be quite short but very sweet..but I'll write up a proper report later today..but suffice to say for now..I am delighted with this lovely scope!😉

Dave

 

Edited February 19 by F15Rules
Typo

[lunator]

It was only a binocular session for me last night. The Moon looked fantastic and I spent some time in Canis Major. In the 20x80 Sirius really sparkled. I always find that looking at Sirius and the fainter stars gives you a real sense of depth. You can 'see' the stars in 3D. 

I also spent some time looking at sigma Canis major. It is a K7Ib super giant star and it orange/red colour was very striking.

[AustenM]

Fast moving low level cloud in Wiltshire throughout the earlier part of the evening, but it did clear somewhat later on. By that time Jupiter was lower in the sky, and whilst the moons were clearly visible, there was not much detail on the planet itself. None of my recently acquired Neweer colour filers helped much. The moon did look good through the CPL, and with some fluctuations, even up to 240x on my 6 inch dobsonian. Good to be outdoors after all the rain and clouds.

[Saganite]

The session you are longing for Dave will be 'third time lucky ' of course.  I have tried hand held shots myself but am useless, yours, of Plato, is great !

[F15Rules]

Thanks Steve..I do find it very difficult to get a decent mobile phone shot..they never truly reflect what I see through the eyepiece!.

I know Stu often manages good mobile phone shots but I believe he does have a proper phone mount? They do look rather like Instruments of Torture though!😄

[Saganite]

I did try a particular popular brand of holder  Dave, but it was so awkward to adjust  that after a few attempts to use it,  it was lucky to leave my employ ' alive ' and in one piece, and I passed it on to some poor soul who probably found it easy to use...

Edited February 19 by Saganite

[Stu]

1 hour ago, F15Rules said:

I know Stu often manages good mobile phone shots but I believe he does have a proper phone mount? They do look rather like Instruments of Torture though!😄

I use a MoveShootMove AccuView mount which is the best I’ve found to date.

https://www.moveshootmove.com/collections/move-shoot-move-rotator/products/3-axis-smartphone-adapter-for-digiscoping-telescope-spotting-scope-adapters
 

It is very rigid and holds its position well. Conditions were bad last night, but I managed these through the FS-128. I do often still just hand hold over the eyepiece though, if I just want to carry on observing.

 

[Orange Smartie]

It was first light for my Mak 127 + AZ GTi last night. I spent a while playing with the alignment and just getting used to the whole thing, so not so much an observing session as a mucking about session. However, I enjoyed some very sharp views of the moon, with rupes recta clearly visible. Photographed with my phone - even then it didn't look too bad. I didn't have my 10" dob out for comparison, but I would have said that the image was sharper - could all be in my imagination though.

Then I did a brief tour of some double/multiple stars - 32 eri was a first for me (found by the goto), hj3945 - a favourite double, beta mon, sigma ori, Castor, the trapezium in M42.

Other things I took a look at: M42 - pretty good, but not a patch on a dobsonian view. Eskimo nebula was surprisingly good - a very clear disk. Jupiter - very crisp clear views. Even Mrs Smartie enjoyed this one.

All in all not a bad little session.

[Mr_Cat]

A pretty decent night last night, some cumulous clouds passing through early on but cleared nicely, just fancied some moon time, swapped the 150 onto the mount to get the whole moon in, then back to the 200 for some general meandering round on the surface. A bit of higher level cloud passing over but didn't impact the viewing too badly.

Had a play with the camera on both the 150 and the 200 - interesting light with the high level cloud. Didn't correct it as it gave it a nice sepia / vintage feel

A very  pleasant evening

 

[F15Rules]

36 minutes ago, Mr_Cat said:

A pretty decent night last night, some cumulous clouds passing through early on but cleared nicely, just fancied some moon time, swapped the 150 onto the mount to get the whole moon in, then back to the 200 for some general meandering round on the surface. A bit of higher level cloud passing over but didn't impact the viewing too badly.

Had a play with the camera on both the 150 and the 200 - interesting light with the high level cloud. Didn't correct it as it gave it a nice sepia / vintage feel

A very  pleasant evening

 

What's to correct? A lovely image!👌😄

Dave

[F15Rules]

Oh dear..I seem to have inadvertently pressed a couple of buttons!..🤦‍♂️🤭

😁😁

[Stu1smartcookie]

Well well well , the weather geeks have done it again .. got it wrong of course .. meant to be cloudy all evening but there is enough clear sky and the seeing is absolutely perfect.. in fact I’ve never seen Sirius so still . The moon is the star of the show with plato looking resplendent . A happy Smartcookie just sitting outside . I left my 180 Mak outside for just over an hour before use . It proved to be a winner . 
 

Edited February 19 by Stu1smartcookie

[Saganite]

Thanks to Stu1smartcookie  for the heads up on the breaks in the cloud.  I was happy to settle for the forecast untiI I saw his post and looked outside.

As a devoted user of binoviewers, particularly for Lunar observing, I have spent the last hour using a single eyepiece, the Svbony 3-8 zoom in fact, and that is only because it is quite cloudy and I thought I would be out for a very short time, so didn't bother with them.  I am however pleased because I have been enthralled by rock steady  views at 400x !

I cannot  believe how steady the atmosphere is, quite incredible, and this little zoom is amazing, all I need for this evening.

Edited February 20 by Saganite

[Mr_Cat]

Last night made three nights in a row. 
Sunday was clear (see previous photo)
Monday was new mount day  - and despite cloud cover the moon did pop through every now and again so it gave me something to look at. Spent most of the evening sorting out USB driver issues etc etc
Last night was seeing what the goto mount could do, sorting out the niggles and practicing the aligning process (so reset and restarted three times..) but ended up rewarding myself with a bit of viewing. Hopped onto the moon and wandered round a bit with the remote, over to M43 via the object database and then a quick look at Pleiades before shutting down and packing away while enjoying 2 fingers of rye !

[Mr Spock]

I can see the moon... but it's very cloudy. Forecast says about 50% from 8 onwards. That's enough for me to get a session in with the 4" I think.

[John]

I can see where the moon is from the glow shining dimly through the thick cloud cover. Can barely tell the phase though. Not worth getting a scope out 😒

Next clear patch is forecast here on the 5th of March ........

 

Edited February 21 by John

[Mr Spock]

Meh... 100% cloud here 😡

[Mr Spock]

Instead, I've had a fiddle with the image I took the other night. Imagine what this scope could do with a proper camera and stacking etc.

[Ratlet]

34 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

Meh... 100% cloud here 😡

Could be worse, this is the third clear night on the trot we've had, and I've got to be up at 0400 for work.  No chance I'm getting out with the scope tonight.

[SwiMatt]

16 minutes ago, Ratlet said:

Could be worse, this is the third clear night on the trot we've had, and I've got to be up at 0400 for work.  No chance I'm getting out with the scope tonight.

Have you thought of not going to bed at all?

[PeterStudz]

33 minutes ago, SwiMatt said:

Have you thought of not going to bed at all?

I use to do that kind of thing when I was younger and would be able to recover quite quickly. But now… if I didn't go to bed for a night it would literally take over a week! 

[Mr_Cat]

Fourth night in a row..

Shortened as I had to go the folks shopping, got home as the clouds started to roll in..

Tonight's aim was just to get the mount out, polar aligned and three star aligned.

And the clouds cleared for just long enough.

Aligned and slewed to the moon, very very bright so slewed to M43. Lovely smudge in the sky... And then it wasn't. The cloud was back..

Quickly told the mount to go back to the moon and as it did I grabbed the laptop and the camera.

Got the focus,  exposure and gain sorted just as the first cloud rolled over.

No matter, it was a good practice for setting up quickly and the mount slewed perfectly onto objects so I'm.claimimg that as a win..

Seeing that I'm the only person that appears to enjoy a glass of something while observing I decided to abstain. The upmann cigar I had instead was very nice!!

[Whistlin Bob]

14 minutes ago, Mr_Cat said:

Seeing that I'm the only person that appears to enjoy a glass of something while observing

Definitely not, but we do seem to be a minority! Glad to hear that at least someone is getting some observing in.

[John]

5 hours ago, John said:

I can see where the moon is from the glow shining dimly through the thick cloud cover. Can barely tell the phase though. Not worth getting a scope out 😒

Next clear patch is forecast here on the 5th of March ........

 

Much to my surprise, I have actually had an hour observing the moon this evening. Mostly playing around with 1.25 inch and 2 inch eyepieces and a couple of diagonals to see what works best with my 100mm F/9 refractor. Some fun on a night which I thought would be a write off 🙂

[bosun21]

Well done for grabbing the slightest opportunity. An EQ6R Pro isn't exactly a grab and go setup.